Conditions improve, but road still closed.
Updated 1:30 p.m. 5/10/22
A stubborn wildfire in the Green Swamp at the Brunswick County line is causing an hour-long detour for motorists on N.C. 211.
The Driving Creek Fire has been burning since Sunday.
The highway is closed at Little Macedonia Church Road and Camp Branch Road. Traffic is being detoured from U.S. 17 to N.C. 130 to U.S. 701, through Whiteville to U.S. 74-76 and back to N.C. 211, according to the Department of Transportation.
The smoke is clearing along the roadway, but traffic is still being detoured while crews clear damaged trees near the road.
Phillip Jackson of the N.C. Forest Service said this morning that the fire grew to 597 acres from its its initial 568, but is currently 75 percent contained. Officials are concerned the fire could make its way into the organic soil prevalent in the pocosin forest, igniting the underground peat. Smoke from the fire was visible on satellite Tuesday.
Peat fires can burn underground for months without sufficient rain to soak the soil.
The Forest Service was first called out to the fire Sunday. Dry conditions and strong winds have pushed the flames into deeper areas of the Green Swamp Preserve. The blaze is thought to have started from a lightning strike.
Timothy Armstrong of the National Weather service Wilmington office said the entire area has been unusually dry for months.
“It has been a dry winter and spring so far,” he said.
Data from the weather station located in the Green Swamp, rainfall since February has been consistently below normal.
“This is likely due to the La Nina weather pattern we’re still stuck in which typically brings dry winter weather across the Southeastern U.S.,” he explained. “It’s really been quite dry for the past eight to nine months.”
The Green Swamp weather station measured 4.29 inches of precipitation in January, roughly a half-inch above normal. The rest of the winter and spring have been below normal so far. February saw 2.03 inches lower than average, with March 1.33 down, April .56 inch, and .9 below normal so far for May.
A significant sub-tropical system off the coast is expected to bring showers to the area beginning Thursday through Saturday.
“We’re expecting a one-quarter to one-half of rain over the next several days, with some embedded heavier totals possible in thunderstorms,” Armstrong said. “This rain, and especially the lighter winds and higher humidity that will accompany it, may help slow the spread of the fire.”
Much of the Green Swamp is currently in a moderate drought, as determined by the National Drought Monitor page. Currently, Columbus County is considered abnormally dry by the N.C. Drought Management Advisory Council (DMAC). Some parts of the Green Swamp are also unusually dry in both Brunswick and Columbus, according to the DMAC.
The Department of Transportation is providing updates on the detour at drivenc.gov.
